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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572692">Reflection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedfieldandNivans/pseuds/RedfieldandNivans'>RedfieldandNivans</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dog Tags [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cute, Distracted all the time...., F/F, Friendship/Love, Implied Relationships, Janelle is a mechanic, M/M, Personal Growth, Piers is newly BSAA, Sexuality, Time to bond over personal stuff!, Working with Chris Redfield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:55:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,772</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572692</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedfieldandNivans/pseuds/RedfieldandNivans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Newly recruited Agent Piers Nivans heads home between B.S.A.A. SOU missions to clear his head of distractions, visit his best friend and give her an update neither of them were ready for....</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Piers Nivans/Chris Redfield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dog Tags [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/146850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reflection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteebRogurz/gifts">SteebRogurz</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This one-shot scene is for a brand new friend of mine who has come out of nowhere to enthusiastically shove me out of my self-imposed, fic-writing hybernation in the hopes that I will start writing and updating again....</p><p>Here's hoping I don't disappoint after all this time! *cracks knuckles*</p><p>C.</p><p> </p><p>(Note: This one-shot takes place before the events of Resident Evil/ Biohazard 6 and is part of our DogTags timeline.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What's with the serious face?”</p><p>“Nothing. It’s…stupid. Don’t worry about it.” </p><p>“Comon, Piers. I know you better than that. You’re thinking about something big and you want to talk about it. That’s why you came home to see me, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Jesus, when did you become a therapist? I haven’t been gone that long.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t you shit your pants if I had my license,” Janelle laughed at the idea of paying to go to school to listen to other people’s problems for a living. She did enough of that already, and she worked in an auto shop. <br/>
“Comon now, spill the beans. It’s just me.” She watched him with mild concern from her place on the carpeted floor of her childhood bedroom. </p><p>The room had once belonged to her and her three sisters growing up and though she visited her father’s house often, this room in particular had remained untouched over the years, it was a space she and Piers liked to come back to for nostalgia’s sake.</p><p>Her best friend sat across from her, his back to the opposite set of bunk beds, legs stretched out, with the bottoms of his sock feet pressed flat against hers while he pretended to be very interested in the autographed baseball in his hands. </p><p>“Is it work related?” She asked tentatively, knowing full well Piers couldn’t often share what was on his mind because of his profession. </p><p>“No. Well yes…” He chuckled to himself and pinched the bridge of his nose as though he’d remembered something amusing. “I’m losing my focus and it’s kind of pissing me off.”</p><p>The baseball flew her way and she caught it with both hands. “Did you hit your head? You better have gotten it checked out, because if you’re concussed-- “</p><p>Piers laughed at that and caught the ball on its way back. “I’m not concussed. Thanks for the vote of confidence though. I’m just…distracted.” </p><p>When he didn’t elaborate right away, Janelle didn’t press the issue. She reached backward under the bed to slide out some random childhood junk from the dusty space beneath. She gave him some time to gather his thoughts as she began sifting through it.</p><p>With her focus somewhere else, Piers watched her sort her things and wondered how the heck to even put his current issue to words for her. Or even if he should say anything at all… She was his best friend after all. They’d been through a lot together. And they were more alike than she knew. </p><p>“You like girls, right?”</p><p>That earned him a snort. </p><p>“I liked girls when I was a <em>girl</em>. I’m more into women now, thanks.”</p><p>That actually made him blush and she definitely noticed the red in his cheeks because she was laughing at him now and he reached back to toss a pillow at her head. She didn’t even try to dodge it. Her grin was infectious when the pillow fell away and Piers shook his head and changed positions, pulling his feet away from hers. </p><p>“You know what I meant!” </p><p>“You just wanted to make sure I’m still gay.”</p><p>“Suppose I did.” </p><p>He wouldn’t look at her and she tossed a My Little Pony figure at him. “Why? Don’t tell me you’ve been listening to our parents again. All that ‘<em>You two should be married by now’ </em>crap.”</p><p>Piers smiled at that, looking over the small plastic horse in his hand. It was true he and Janelle had grown up together and all their young lives they had heard the hopeful predictions of friends and family. Too bad life had other plans for them. </p><p>“That ship has sailed, Jell. You missed your chance with me.”</p><p>She made a face at him. “You want dating advice, then.” She was guessing now. “You’ve come to grovel at the feet of the one lesbian goddess you know, to learn the mysteries of women, amiright?”</p><p>“Goddess is a stretch.” Piers perched the Pony atop his knee, balancing it there until it stood on it’s own. “But I’ll take the advice if you’re offering.”</p><p>“Is she older than you? Are you the same rank?”</p><p>“What makes you think we work together?”</p><p>“Piers you told me you’re in town because you have some ‘shit to work out’. They don’t send you home unless it’s seriously affecting your performance.”</p><p>“Okay I’ll give you that one.” The toy fell off his knee and Piers sighed, “It’s….complicated.”</p><p>“If you’re this distracted….Wait, have you slept with her already?”</p><p>“What? No.”</p><p>“Is it one-sided? Does she even know you’re interested in her?”</p><p>“Maybe talking about this is a bad idea…”</p><p>“No, I think you need to talk about this. It’s good to talk about your feelings, not enough men do.”</p><p>“Okay now I <em>really</em> don’t want to talk about this.”</p><p>“Aw, don’t lock up on me now. I never get to hear about you. You’re always getting posted for months on end, sometimes you’re gone for years at a time, and all I get to see is tiny snapshots of your life through moments like this.” </p><p>The almost hurt look in her eyes had him scratching the side of his jaw and looking away to the bedroom window. “There’s not much to tell. I go to work, live another day, come back home, then go to work again…” </p><p>“Yeah, don’t talk about it like you work at a grocery store or something. You’re job is far from average. And you definitely do not come home that often. Good try though.” </p><p>Her jab did not go unnoticed. “I come home when I can. You know that.”</p><p>Janelle crawled from her side of the room over to his side. </p><p>“I know,” she sighed, taking the pony from his hands and tossing it carelessly onto the bed behind them. It hit the wall and fell to the floor behind the mattress. It was no wonder there was so much crap under there. </p><p>“This town feels a lot smaller when you’re not around though.”</p><p>Piers frowned and leaned his head back against the bed, “What’s keeping you here? I mean besides your pop?”</p><p>“The shop,” She replied simply. “Dad can’t manage the workload alone anymore and I’m already pretty much running the place, so….there’s that. Besides, can you really picture me moving to the city? Wearing heels and answering to some CEO moron with more money than he knows what to do with?” She snorted, “Not in this lifetime.”</p><p>Piers chuckled at the imagery. “Good point.”</p><p>“Alright, enough about me.” She patted his leg. “Tell me about this distraction of yours.”</p><p>“Oh that. I’ve decided it’s not something I want to talk about anymore.”</p><p>“Piers, don’t even.” She gave him a little shove, “What’s she like?”</p><p>“Masculine.”</p><p>Janelle laughed, “Oh my god, Piers. Did you not learn anything from dating me? You can’t convert the unwilling.”</p><p>Now it was Piers’ turn to laugh. “I’m not dating a lesbian. I learned my lesson with you.”</p><p>Janelle looked like she didn’t believe him, but she moved on, trying to put the pieces together: “So…if you haven’t slept with her, but you have some big crush on her and she’s around you enough to distract you….what are you going to do about it?”<br/>
 <br/>
“Learn to ignore it.”</p><p>“Well that sounds self-depreciating.”</p><p>Piers chuckled, “It definitely is.”</p><p>“So you’re just going to focus on what you have to do and not what you want to do? How very Nivans of you.”</p><p>Piers was quiet for a moment.</p><p>Janelle nudged him. “I grew up with you guys, I can say that. It’s true anyway. Your whole family is very ‘duty first, everything else second’. So I shouldn’t be surprised to hear you like someone and you’re not going to pursue a relationship even though you want one.”</p><p>There was that word again: <em>relationship</em>. It had Piers bristling inside. He didn’t want anything like that… he just needed to sort out these feelings so he could banish them before he had a chance to act on them….</p><p>Okay, yeah, he was self-sabotaging. <em>Thanks Janelle</em>, for pointing that out. </p><p>“I don’t want anything out of it, I’m just distracted and I need to figure out how to get back to doing my job in a way that doesn’t end with me dead.”</p><p>“A distracted soldier is a dead soldier,” Janelle rolled her eyes. “You still deserve a little love now and then, Piers. I say if it won’t cost you more than a reprimand in the morning, go for it. Find her and tell her you want her and—“</p><p>“Okay we’re done talking about this.” Piers looked uncomfortable again. He got up from his place on the floor and brushed the dust bunnies off of his pant legs. “How are things with you and…?”</p><p>“Sarah,” Janelle pulled on her friend’s arm for help up off the floor. “You really have to meet her. She’s something else.”</p><p>“She live in town?”</p><p>“No, but that might change soon.” She beamed.</p><p>“You got her to come live with you?”</p><p>Janelle shrugged like it was no big deal, “Her suggestion.” </p><p>She opened the bedroom door for him and Piers continued to stare at her in mock disbelief even as he backed out the doorway into the hall ahead of her. “Let me make sure I’m understanding this: A woman wanted to live with <em>you</em>? Like, in the <em>same house?</em> For an <em>extended period of time?”</em> </p><p>“Oh <em>hardy har har.</em> As a matter of fact she is very excited to live under the same roof as me.”</p><p>Piers raised a disbelieving eyebrow that made her laugh and turn him back around and continue down the hall. “Seriously. I know I can be a bit much, but they say there’s a lid for every pot, right?”</p><p>“Speaking of pot….” Piers sniffed the stale air of the old living room. “You been smoking in here lately?”</p><p>“Dad has a permit, thank you very much. His arthritis is brutal these days. Which is part of the reason he’s got me taking care of things at the shop. And no, you can’t have any of my stash. You’re practically on duty, remember?”</p><p>Piers snorted. “I’m high on life.”</p><p>“Not if you don’t pursue it when life comes a knock’n.” She grinned. “Why don’t you invite what’s-her-name here to visit?”</p><p><em>“Yeah, that wouldn’t be awkward at all.”</em> Piers scratched the space behind his ear. Images of Chris Redfield coming home with him to his small backwater hometown in the middle of nowhere ran through his head. Yeah, they’d be the talk of the town for sure. He’d never brought a <em>girl</em> home, let alone his very manly field captain. </p><p>“Why would it be awkward? I mean, I’m not telling you to <em>kidnap</em> her and drag her here against her will or anything! Just be honest with her and tell her you’re interested in her and want to take her with you on your next road trip back home. Ladies like it when you communicate effectively.”</p><p>“That so?”</p><p>“It is so.”</p><p>“Fascinating. Did you know guys like that too?” He shot her a look that he knew she would take as a jab at their previous falling outs over the years. On account of poor communication on both their parts Janelle and Piers had managed to date for months before either of them actually admitted to each other that they just weren’t working out.</p><p>Janelle paused short of the screen door to the backyard, “You do know that despite our rocky relationship history I love you more than anything, right? I always have.”</p><p>Piers’ gaze softened, “Yeah, just—“</p><p><em>“-not like that,”</em> they laughed in unison. </p><p>She pulled him in for a lengthy hug that had tears welling up in her eyes. Having her best friend standing in her house again after being gone for so long made her emotional, damnit. “I’m happy you came home,” she told him, pulling away from the hug to swipe at her eyes, “But next time you come here without a date I’m going to kick your ass.” She turned to slide the screen door open, but Piers stopped her before she could go outside.</p><p>“What if I told you this person wasn’t a woman?” </p><p>Janelle froze at the suggestion. “What?”</p><p>Piers looked equally as shocked at his own words. He stopped moving. He stopped thinking too until his friend waved a hand over his eyes.</p><p>He must have zoned out in his panic because Janelle sounded like she was losing patience with him. </p><p>“Piers, I’m asking you a question!” she laughed. “You can’t just stop talking after that! She’s not…<em>.too young</em> is she?” Janelle whispered, making a mildly grossed out face at him that made Piers regret life so hard he turned to walk away from the whole situation. </p><p>Janelle chased the full-grown soldier back through the house. She knew he was heading for the front door and she moved to stop him before he could collect his boots or get a hand on the doorknob. </p><p>“Oh no you don’t! I’m not letting you leave this place until you explain to me what the heck you meant by that. You can’t just throw something like that at me and not explain.”</p><p>Piers looked at her for a moment, “Forget it. We’re not having this conversation anymore, and you’re going to let me leave so I can find my dignity,” he tried for the door again. When she full body blocked him he sighed heavily and looked to the ceiling in exasperation. <em>“Janelle!”</em></p><p>“How old is she?”</p><p>Frustrated, Piers gave in, “Thirty-eight.”</p><p>Janelle looked so very confused. </p><p>If Piers hadn’t wanted to escape the whole conversation so badly, he might have relished that look on her face.</p><p>She leaned against the door, stubbornly, her arms coming up to fold across her chest while she looked over her friend. “Piers, are you talking in code? Because none of what you just told me makes any sense. You’re not dating a woman, but she’s thirty-eight years old?”</p><p>Piers had to admit the only part of all this that could pass for amusing was Janelle’s inability to see him as anything other than a straight man. </p><p>“The <em>guy</em> I like is not a woman,” he stated bluntly. Better to get it over with now than draw it out any longer. </p><p>
  <em>“Oh.” </em>
</p><p>“Yeah.” </p><p>“Pierson are you serious? Are you telling me you’re gay??” She looked genuinely surprised by that. </p><p>“No-! <em>Maybe?</em> Hell, I don’t know! I told you I was distracted, didn’t I?” He scratched at his hair with both hands in distress. “<em>I</em> don’t even know what’s happening, how am I supposed to have all these answers for you?”</p><p>“Jesus, “Janelle agreed, now holding onto the doorknob for support as she considered the possibility her childhood best friend was more like she was than they had previously ever known. “This must be some guy because I’ve known you forever and I would have never thought –“ She stopped herself before she said anything that could be interpreted as homophobic. Piers already looked spooked as it was. “Do I know him?”</p><p>“Not likely.”</p><p>“What’s he like?”</p><p>Piers thought about that for a second, his hands, which had been up in his hair, dropped back to his sides in defeat. “Amazing in every way.”</p><p>“He hot?”</p><p>“Incredibly.”</p><p>“What’s his name?”</p><p>“Chris.”</p><p>“Sexy. He your boss?” She guessed.</p><p>Piers sat down heavily on the couch behind him, looking more and more embarrassed. <em>“…Yes.”</em></p><p>Janelle couldn’t hide her grin anymore. </p><p>“You like that he gives you orders.”</p><p>Piers scoffed at that but didn’t outright deny it. </p><p>"Does your heart do that little skippy thing when he's near you? And when he's not around do you feel kind of like you lost something?"</p><p>Piers nodded, not looking at her. "That's oddly specific..."</p><p>"Do you think he likes you back?"</p><p>Piers frowned down at his hands. "I have no idea. That's what's driving me crazy. He does these tiny things when we're alone that make me think...ugh. I dont know....I'm probably way off my mark here. I told you it was stupid."</p><p>Janelle was terrible at hiding her giddiness. She practically skipped over to him on the couch and slung an arm across his shoulders. "Not to freak you out or anything, but you know you're throwing your entire known sexual identity out the window right now, right?"</p><p>Piers looked like he was beginning to truly realize just how much trouble he was in.</p><p>"...Yes."</p><p>Janelle's knowing grin grew wider at the admission.</p><p>“Okay, now you absolutely <em>have</em> to bring him home."</p><p> </p><p>*  *  *  *</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey all, thank you for reading Reflection! If you need to see how things progressed for Piers after this piece, you'll want to read our other fics in the DogTags series (they are not always in order...), especially "Planting The Seed" where Chris and Claire have much the same conversation a year or so after this one takes place! Or "True Strength" where Chris is finally invited out to the Nivans property after everything that happened in RE6... fun stuff!</p><p>As always, thank you for leaving Kudos and Commenting on what we do here on AO3. 2020 has been a complete write-off for all of us, hasn't it though?<br/>We love you all, &amp; stay safe out there, </p><p>C.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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